Lifeless Substitute
by Moon's Embrace
Summary: It's Tim's birthday, and he went out to celebrate. Why doesn't he remember? T to be safe...


**Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, and do not lay claim to any of their characters.**

**This one-shot is dedicated to Sean Murray (Tim McGee), and his 32****nd**** birthday (November 15, 2009)**

--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS-------

Tim opened his eyes slowly. He stayed in bed for a few minutes, just staring at the spot on the ceiling where the light from the window was shining in a perfect square, yet was slightly distorted by the angle of the incoming light. He let his mind toy with this for a few more seconds, allowing his thoughts to wander aimlessly over his past. His mind flitted from his college days – computers and a car crash – to the recent past – Abby and the rest of the team, and just NCIS in general. He was hoping for another normal day, but knew it could never be so. Not today it couldn't, anyway.

"If I can just make it through today," he left the thought half-finished, the thought left unsaid. He sat up in bed, letting the sheets fall off of his torso. He glanced down to the empty pillow beside him, then silently over to the closed bathroom door. _'How hammered did I get last night?'_ He found himself thinking. He could still feel the warmth of the bed where someone had been laying, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember who it was who had been laying there. He got up slowly, searching the room for his clothes. He found a g-string, and a pair of his boxers near the bed. He was just slipping back into them when the bathroom door opened. His jaw dropped.

Walking out of the bathroom toward him was a very hot blonde in nothing but a towel. Her hair had a hint of curl, but was wet enough that it barely showed. Even with the towel on, he could see all of her… curves. "Good morning, baby," she sighed in a voice that Tim swore he had only heard in his dreams.

"G-good morning," he managed to stammer out. He couldn't remember her name, or where he had picked her up, let alone what they had done.

"I take it you don't remember, huh?" She asked in her silky smooth voice. "Maybe this will help refresh your memory?" Before Tim could stop her she had dropped her towel and stepped forward, half expecting him to make a move. Tim felt his head spin. It had been a long time, at least as far as he could remember, since anything like this had happened to him. "No? Then how about this?" She took a few steps towards him and gently kissed him. His mind flashed back groggily to the night before, when the same thing had happened in a bar. He could see it, the two of them near a wall, her making the moves because he was already helplessly drunk. He remembered telling her his address, and her driving him home. He remembered unlocking the door, and then his mind, and memory, went blank.

"Only a little," he sighed against her lips. She pulled away from him for a moment to look at him in disbelief before pulling close again.

"Maybe a reenactment will help, huh?" She tugged at his boxers and forced him back and out of them. She backed him to the bed and pushed him down. She quickly straddled him, and waited for the recognition to come. And the recognition came. He could see it, and hear it, and feel it. They had rushed into his bedroom, undressing the entire way, and fallen onto the bed. He had still been wasted beyond a doubt, so he had just lain there while she did all the work.

He groaned a little at the memory. "I remember," he sighed, flipping her over. "Maybe we can do this again sometime?"

"Only if you remember my name, Tim," she obviously remembered his. His mind flashed back to when they had first met, before he was totally drunk. He ran through all the names he could remember from the night before.

"Lynn. Your name is Lynn," he remembered just as she was ready to pull away from him. She looked at him in disbelief for a second.

"Got me there, lover-boy," she said, pulling herself up to his lips again. "Want my number, or are we doing this now?"

"The later I am to work, the better," Tim said, moving himself into position above her.

--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------NCIS--------

"Where is he?" Abby whined from where she was at Tim's desk. She sat fairly still amongst the several dozen balloons she had tied at various points around his desk. She had taken some serious time out of her day to work at all these decorations, and had even baked him a cake that she had decorated by herself.

"I don't know, Abs," Gibbs said from his desk, "but he better be here soon, he's already half an hour late, and I don't care what his excuse is this time."

The whole team looked up as the elevator dinged, and quickly pretended not to have done so as Tim stepped out. Abby was almost bouncing out of the chair by the time Tim got to his desk. She stood, making sure that the cake was securely on the desk.

"McGee!" She yelled as she hugged him tightly. She never wanted to let go, ever.

"Hi Abby," Tim sighed, detaching her arms from his neck.

"Happy Birthday, Timmy!" She said, hugging him more gently this time. She put her head on his shoulder for a second, before pulling back suddenly and staring at him in alarm. "You smell like perfume, Tim."

"Oh ho!" Tony called from his desk. "Looks like our little Timmy got McLaid!"

Abby glared over at Tony, and then looked back to Tim, keeping the scowl on her face. "Timmy, you got some 'splainin' to do," Abby took him by the hand and dragged him toward the elevator. She was going to get answers out of him, and nothing could stop her, not even-

"Abby, I need my agent," Gibbs called from where he stood by his desk.

"But Gibbs," she whined, stomping her foot. "I'll take him to interrogation. I've watched enough of them, I'll crack him."

"Abby, what he did last night is between him and whoever he was with. Now come on, Tim," he didn't move, just lectured from the spot he was at.

Tim nodded and began to walk away, but Abby grabbed his arm and dragged him back. She got close to his face, but not in anything more than a 'you better tell me' kind of way. "Just tell me her name. I don't care about anything else. Just her name."

Tim sighed. Abby could tell he didn't want to tell her, but knew he couldn't resist her. "Lynn. Her name is Lynn, and it was all a one night stand kind of thing, and I was drunk," Tim's words started to move faster and faster as he explained himself.

"Timmy, I wanted her name, relax," Abby said, and then pulled him into a quick hug. "Now go and do your special agent this. I'll come back up with something for that hangover."

"What hangov-" She could almost feel the sudden shooting pain in his head. That was something she definitely didn't miss. She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for her lab.

"Happy Birthday, Timmy," she said to the closing elevator doors.


End file.
